Both Obama & Kerry warn that deep spending cuts could limit US military operations abroad.
Mine warfare ship USS Defender – Photo: US Navy/Ryan C. McGinley
Mine warfare ship USS Defender – Photo: US Navy/Ryan C. McGinley
Amir Ben-David
The Southern Zoning Committee approved a bid by the Israel National Roads Company to build new train tracks in the country’s south, despite an environmental impact report that deemed the project harmful, Yedioth Aharonoth reported.
The train track are expected to run though plant and wildlife reservations, as well as known hiking trails, but unlike similar projects that aimed to minimize their environmental impact, the new project will not make use of the usual solution of tunnels, as suggested by the Environmental Protection Ministry Israel Nature and National Parks Service. Continue Reading »
Likud officials in charge of coalition negotiations said that Hatnuah Chairman Tzipi Livni‘s consent to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government was the “first domino” to fall, believing that more parties would now follow.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Naftali Bennett. – Photo by Archive
Shas and Kadima are expected to join the coalition quickly, but the Likud officials also expect that Livni’s move will apply pressure on Yesh Atid and Habayit Hayehudi, as well. Continue Reading »
A report published on Tuesday in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar purports to present a detailed account of the 2008 assassination of senior Hizbullah terrorist Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus.
As expected, the report pointed the finger at the Israeli Mossad as being behind the operation.
According to Al-Akhbar, as soon as the 2006 Second Lebanon War ended, Hizbullah began the largest operation to restore its military organization and raise the level of its readiness and weaponry. Mughniyeh was put in charge of developing and enhancing the military abilities of the group in Lebanon. Continue Reading »
jn1.tv
VIDEO – Guests of the Ortaköy Etz Ahayim Synagogue in Istanbul – a holy place that has witnessed countless weddings, ceremonies, bar mitzvahs and hopeful prayers throughout decades and generations – commemorated the International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.

Istanbul, Turkey – Photo: AP
Millions of Jews, who were systematically murdered by Nazi regime during World War II, were commemorated in the Turkish city.
Besides the members of the local Jewish community, the ceremony was also attended by Holocaust survivors, the chief rabbi, Turkish government officials, Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew and citizens of Istanbul. Continue Reading »
Palestinian Authority resident criminal gangs continue to target Israeli drivers for theft, and women traveling alone in particular. Two women escaped attempted carjackings at the last minute on Monday evening.
The two told Arutz Sheva their stories.
“At around 9 p.m. I passed through the Hizme junction on my way home, and suddenly I lost control of the car,” one recalled. “There was something on the road that made the car slip sideways.”
She pulled over to see what was wrong, and a car immediately pulled up behind her. Continue Reading »
Israel’s Maariv newspaper reported on Tuesday that alleged Mossad agent Ben Zygier hanged himself in Ayalon Prison by tying a bed sheet to the steel bars of the window in his cell’s bathroom, and then standing on a stool.

An article about Zygier on the front page of an Australian newspaper last week. – Photo: AFP
Citing the Israel Prison Service report written up immediately after Zygier’s suicide in December 2010, Maariv reported that Zygier woke up on the morning of Dec.
By Itamar Eichner
“If we could, we would stay in Tel Aviv forever. The people are wonderful, the food is outstanding, the views are splendid, the soldiers walk around with big guns and huge smiles and they are much nicer than our civil servants.”

Serbians “like” Israel – Photo: Desa Fogel
This is the impression Israel made on bloggers from Belgrade, Serbia who returned to their country enamored with the Jewish state.
The six skillful and curious bloggers who write on an array of topics were brought to Israel on a joint Foreign Ministry-Tourism Ministry venture. Continue Reading »
Palestinian gunmen from Al-Aqsa brigades of Fatah
Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
The gunmen, who had been pardoned by Israel, said that the NIS 1,500 that each one of them receives from the PA was not enough.
They threatened to launch protests in the West Bank if the PA government did not increase their salaries.
By Gil Ronen
Attorney General and Government Legal Advisor Yehuda Weinstein is considering a request by MK Miri Regev (Likud) to open a criminal investigation against MKs Ahmed Tibi (Raam-Taal), Zehava Galon (Meretz) and Dov Chenin (Hadash), who rendered ineffective a gag order on the Zygier affair by speaking about the affair in the Knesset plenum.
Once the MKs spoke about the affair in the plenum, where deliberations are broadcast live on the televised Knesset Channel, other Israeli news outlets felt free to report about it, too. Continue Reading »
Israeli deterrence has so far successfully kept Hamas from violating the cease-fire reached after an eight-day round of violence in November, but a second factor might also be playing a role in upholding the unprecedented calm along the Gaza-Israel border: economics.
Qatari emir greeted in Gaza by Haniyeh – Photo: Reuters
Weeks before November’s Operation Pillar of Defense, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, paid a landmark visit to the Hamasrun enclave, and nearly doubled his country’s investment to Gaza, raising it to 400 million dollars.
Moran Azulay
After a number of Knesset members urged Justice Minister Yaakov Ne’eman to address allegations that an Australian national committed suicide in an Israeli prison, thereby blowing the cover off the “Prisoner X” affair, the issue of parliamentary immunity upon revealing State secrets has become a sensitive matter.
Knesset Legal Advisor Eyal Yinon determined Monday that Knesset members cannot disclose state secrets to the Knesset plenum and then utilize their parliamentary immunity.
Immunity for revealing State secrets would be applied to an MK if he or she spoke without preplanning, “in the heat of an argument or in response to things said,” Yinon said, but “preplanning a statement – that is in fact a felony that cannot be protected by immunity and a member of Knesset can be prosecuted for the said felony, as can any other person.” Continue Reading »
Egypt‘s campaign to shut down smuggling tunnels running under its border into the Gaza Strip threatens to throw thousands of Palestinians out of work in the Hamas-run enclave.

Palestinian waits for a cart containing gravel inside a smuggling tunnel beneath the Egyptian-Gaza border in November 2012. – Photo by Reuters
The network of tunnels has been a vital lifeline for Gaza, bringing in an estimated 30 percent of all goods that reach the enclave and circumventing a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt for more than seven years. Continue Reading »
By Chana Ya’ar
Israeli submarines have allegedly been spotted cruising off the coast of Lebanon between Sidon and Nakura, according to a report in Lebanese media.
French tracking installations informed the United Nations that the subs had been detected, according to the report, published in the Al-Dayar daily newspaper.
Israel Air Force jets regularly patrol the skies of Lebanon for a number of reasons, deterrence against weapons transports from Syria to the Hizbullah terrorist organization among them. Continue Reading »